Process of making gun wad material



Aug. 23, JOHNSON PROCESS OF MAKING GUN WAD MATERIAL Filed March 24, 1950 Patented Aug. 23, 1932 his stares PATENT oFFiCET REGINALD H. JOHNSON, OF MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN HAIR,

8.1 FELT COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE rnocnss or MAKING GUN wan MATERIAL Application filed March24,

The invention relates to gun wad felt and to a method of producing the same.

It has heretofore been proposed to make gun wads of punched felt, preferably with a reinforced fabric, and in the manufacture of such felt it has been the practice to impregnate the felt produced by a needle-punching loom with sizing, run this felt through driers and thereafter press the same. It has been found with such a procedure that the hair or fibres stick up from the body of the wad material and in order to use the material in the shell-loading machines it has been necessary to coat both sides of the material with paper before cutting the same into wads. This paper coating increases the cost of the product and the waste after cutting has little commercial value because of the necessity for removing the paper. The object of the present invention is to provide an improved gun wad felt and a process of making the same whereby the fibres will be held down in the body of the material so that the same as a finished product may be out directly into wads and fed to the loading machines.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of part of the apparatus used in carrying out the process;

Fig. 2 is a detail, diagrammatic, sectional view through one of the driers.

Fig. 3 is a detail view showing certain modifications in the apparatus.

The felt itself is produced by laying a bat or bats of animal hair upon a fabric, such as burlap, and punch-felting the fibres thereto by the use of the usual needle-punching loom and then laying a hat or bats of animal hair upon the opposite side of said fabric and punch-felting the fibres of this bat or these bats to said fabric and to the previously punched fibres by the use of the needle-punching loom, the same preferably being carried out as a continuous process. This provides a material in which a great portion of the fibres extend normal to the plane of the surface of the material, which, in the case of 1930. Serial No. 438,514.

wads for cartridges, has been found to possess decided advantages as'offering a more effective seal for the gases generated on the firing of the cartridge.

According to the present process this punched felt material, designated by the numeral 4, is next run into a tank 5 containing a suitable sizing and during its passage through said tank is impregnated therewith and thence proceeds through a pair of squeeze rolls 6, for removing excess size, to and around a series of steam-heated pressing and drying rolls 7, as shown in Fig. 1, and thence through one or more drying chambers 8 where it is given its final drying subsequent to its finishing treatment.

The drying chambers 8, of course, depend upon the circulation of heated air for the proper drying of the material and a typical form 'of dryer has been shown in detail in Fig. 2, wherein the material 4; is carried on an endless foraminous belt 9 through the drying chamber and during its progress therethrough is subjected to currents of drying air which, as shown by. the arrows, are caused to circulatethrough the material by means of fans 10 operatingin ducts 11 communioating with the upper and lower portions of the drying chamber and atspaced intervals throughout its length. Where, as in previous practice, the size-impregnated wad material is .led directly to the drying chamber 8, it has been found that the air passing through thematerial tends to drive the size from the upper surface and that gravity and air currents acting on the material prevents the sizing from thereafter holding down the protruding fibres. By the present process the passage of the material over the dryingrolls 7, which, as shown in the drawing, are arranged to act on opposite sides thereof, acts to smooth downthe protruding fibres and also to produce a preliminary surface drying to form a skin coating, preventing the free discharge of the sizing material, as noted above, during its passage through the main driers, such as the'chambersS. Thus, after passing over the'rolls 7 the top and bottom sides of the material are in such a condition that as the material is passed through the driers 8 neither the air currents nor gravity will disturb these previously treated surfaces. The re sult is that after drying the wad material is in a condition in which the usualprotruding fibres have been laid down so that they will not cause trouble in the finished product and so that no special coating of paper or other material is necessary in order that the material, as gun wads, may be fed to or used in the loading machines.

In place of the rolls 7 I may, as shown in Fig. 3, use a single large, heated drying and pressing cylinder 12 which acts more particularly on the under side of the material before its passage to the driers and in conjunction therewith or separate therefrom I may use a substantially flat, galvanized iron ironing plate 13, either heated or unheated, as desired, to smooth down the protruding fibres, the material also passing over guide rollers 6'. Either or both of these alternatives will act to prevent the free discharge of the sizing from the material during drying, it being noted that the dragging of the material over the cylinder 12 or the plate 13 puts a smoothing pressure on the same.

After passing through the driers 8 the material is subjected to considerable pressure in hydraulic presses to further pack or compress the felt to the proper thickness and density and as a preliminary to this opera tion the dried material, in sheet form, is placed in a steam chamber to moisten it somewhat and is then placed between the steam heated platenscof the hydraulic press and the pressure is applied, the movement of these platens being restricted to within the desired thickness dimensions of the material. After this pressing operation the material is ready for use and by the present process the treatment of the sized material is such that, as previously noted, it can be cut into wads andused directly in the loading machines.

It is, of course, to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to any particular form or details of apparatus hereinbefore set forth, or that it is to be otherwise limited to the details above set forth except insofar as such limitations are included in the appended claims.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In the process of making gun wad material, the step of subjecting a size-impregnated wad material after sizing to the smoothing action of a surface over which the mate ri al is passed prior to drying to prevent free discharge of the size through the lower-surface of the material during drying.

2. In a process for making gun wad material, the step of subjecting a size-impregnated felt wad material after sizing to heat and pressure to smooth down the protruding fibres and produce a preliminary surface drying to form a skin coating preventing'the free discharge of the size from the body of the material during the final stage of the drying process.

3. In a process for making gun wad material, the step of passing a size-impregnated felt wad material after sizing over a series of heated rolls to smooth down the protruding fibres and produce a preliminary surface drying to form a skin coating preventing the free REGINALD I-I. JOHNSON. 

